AU student group Facilitating Leadership in Youth recently helped teens in Southeast D.C. produce a magazine about gun control titled Why? Guns Killin Youngins: The Youth of Southeast Washington, D.C. Want Answers. The publication was written and put together almost entirely by the teens, with minimal help from FLY.
What's great about FLY is that it organizes younger people to do big things, but then gives them independence, for the most part. FLY provided resources for the kids to create the publication, but did not try to tell them how to do it. It stepped out of the way and let the youths run their project themselves.
Southeast D.C. is undoubtedly a tough place to grow up, so it's great that this publication gave kids the chance to use a creative outlet. Teaching kids to empower themselves is especially important in a place like Anacostia, where some children grow up without positive role models in their lives. According to The Washington Post, District gangs are recruiting younger and younger members, so it's wonderful to have an anti-violence voice among the youth of the Southeast.
